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Patterns of Global Terrorism 1999 - Colombia

The nascent and slow-moving peace process did not prompt Colombia's two largest guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN, or their paramilitary opponents to reduce their terrorist activity. Bogota's exclusion of the ELN in talks it began with the FARC was a factor in the ELN's series of spectacular hijackings and kidnappings – including the Avianca hijacking in April that netted 41 hostages, including one US citizen, and the Cali church kidnapping in May that took 160 hostages. With these acts the ELN sought to demonstrate its continued viability and induce President Andres Pastrana to include it in the peace process as an equal. For its part, the FARC escalated insurgent violence targeting security officials to demonstrate its power and strengthen its negotiating position.

Colombian insurgent groups and paramilitaries continued to fund their activities by protecting narcotics traffickers. Estimates of the profits to terrorist groups from their involvement in narcotics ranged into the hundreds of millions of dollars. In 1999 the Colombian Army trained, equipped, and fielded its first counternarcotics battalion, designed to support national police efforts to break terrorist links to narcotics production.

The FARC and ELN also generated income by kidnapping Colombians and foreigners for ransom and extorting money from businesses and individuals in the Colombian countryside. In addition, both insurgent groups attacked the nation's energy infrastructure – including US commercial interests – by bombing oil pipelines and destroying the electric power grid. US citizens who fell victim to guerrilla terrorism, including three Indian rights workers the FARC kidnapped in Colombia and murdered in Venezuela in March, were targeted because of wealth or opportunity rather than their nationality. The whereabouts of the three New Tribes missionaries kidnapped by the FARC in 1993 remain unknown.

In December, President Pastrana extended the FARC's demilitarized zone (DMZ) through 7 June 2000. Reports of FARC abuses inside the DMZ continued to reduce the FARC's popularity. Colombia's peace commissioner asserted that Bogota would not enter official peace talks or a "National Convention" with the ELN until all remaining hostages were released.

Topics: Terrorism,